Bob Kiernan, 53, and his wife Karen moved to Bellbowrie, a western suburb of Brisbane, with their daughter Elizabeth, seven, in 2007. They now run two pet care businesses, and Bob blogs about expat life in Australia on www.bobinoz.com

Why did you decide to move to Australia?

In 2002, my wife and I decided that we wanted to leave England in five years’ time. We just fancied living somewhere else. We just thought, why would someone want to live in one country for their entire life? We chose France first, but then our daughter Elizabeth was born and all of a sudden France seemed a little bit too sleepy for a young girl. We imagined semi-retiring in France, but Australia – we came on holiday to Australia when she was 18 months old and she just seemed to take to it much better than the holidays we had had in France.

They’re totally different countries. Australia’s really a kind of action land when it comes to the outdoor life and the seaside, and our daughter was very much that way inclined.

And why did you choose Brisbane?

We thought about Sydney, but for us it was too much of a big city, just too busy. It reminded us too much of England in many ways – a crowded, hustling, bustling city where everyone’s in a hurry. And Perth was far too isolated. Melbourne was a consideration, but the climate isn’t great there. So I think in the end it was Brisbane’s weather which attracted us because it’s kind of subtropical, which means we don’t really get a winter. It’s quite a clean and good-looking city, too.

What are the cons about Brisbane?

That it’s not close to the beach. Brisbane’s actually about 50km in from the coast on the Brisbane river, so it’s by the water but not the sea. If you do go to the mouth of the river, you just get mangroves and plants and things, not golden sand. So if you want proper beaches, you’ve got to go about an hour-and-a-half north or an hour-and-a-quarter south. But if you do that, you get to the Sunshine Coast to the north and the Gold Coast to the south, and they’re fantastic.

The other big downside is obviously the floods last year and there are floods in Western Queensland at the moment. But that’s just one of those things about living in a tropical climate – sometimes it rains and it rains hard. Thankfully, the floods don’t come too often.

Was it difficult to sort out your visas?

We got through on my wife’s skill, which was marketing. It was a long process. The application took about three or four months to prepare because she had to have her skill assessed. But when the application went in, it took 10 or 11 months before we got the answer. So it wasn’t straightforward or easy but it’s worth it in the end as long as they say yes.

Once my wife got her skilled visa (hers was a Class BQ Subclass 138 Skilled Visa), as her spouse I automatically qualified. They’ve changed the rules now, but at the time I was over 45 so I couldn’t even apply. But the maximum age limit is 50 now.

As far as sorting out a bank account here, and getting to grips with the tax system went, we didn’t have any problems. It was all pretty straightforward.

But it’s taken us some time to adjust to the currency. When we first moved here, there were about $2.25 to every English pound, and now there are just $1.45. So if you convert everything into English pounds, it looks like an extremely expensive country. Don’t do it, it’ll frighten the life out of you!

Remember that salaries are higher here. Try and work out how much you were getting in dollars in the UK, and compare it to what you are earning in Australia, and you’ll see that it’s not any more costly to live here. The English pound is so weak at the moment, but people over here don’t earn pounds, they earn Australian dollars. That’s really important to bear in mind.

How did you set up your businesses?

It’s pretty easy to set up a business. You just have to register your business name with the local government and pay a small fee to register it. It’s as simple as that and then you can start trading and you just have to make sure you keep your accounts. So it’s not very difficult to set up a business here.

We’d never had our own business before. It was just something we wanted to try out. Our dog walking company, Dog Walks came out of bringing our dog over with us. We found out that when they go into quarantine here for one month, they don’t actually get walked. You have to arrange for a private walker or do it yourself. Often it’s quite difficult to locate dog walkers, so we just saw a gap in the market really.

Now my wife has a team of dog walkers – people can book packages online and have their dogs visited and walked twice a week. Quarantine must be quite a traumatic thing for dogs – like going to prison!

The local pet care business, At Home Pet Care with Karenwas my wife’s idea. Australia’s a pet-loving country, a lot of people have pets. When they go on holiday, they just want to be able to leave their dogs in their back gardens rather than send them to the kennels. So we just go round and feed them while they’re away and check they’re all right.

How did you go about meeting people?

Through our daughter mainly. We sent her to a local playgroup when we arrived and through that my wife met other mums, and then I would meet their husbands.

But I’ve met people in all sorts of ways. I met one friend when I walked into a DIY store and they recognised my Essex accent. He’s from Chelmsford and I lived in Billericay so we instantly had something in common. It’s not overly difficult to meet people – you just have to be open. Get involved in anything you can. I’ve met a lot of friends through playing football, for instance.

When English people move here they’ve obviously left all their friends and family behind, so they’re keen to make new friends, and you can become a kind of support for each other. But it is a bit of a danger to isolate yourself and just have English friends; I’d say we’ve got a 50: 50 mix of Australian and English friends.

Would you consider going back?

No, I think that’s the last thing we would think of doing. Australia’s a great place to bring up kids, it’s a great family country through and through. The standard mode of entertainment is a barbecue in someone’s back garden, and so you can bring your kids with you and you’re all outdoors having fun together, rather than in England where you might go to a pub or something.

And then the vast majority of the time it’s sunny here which keeps you in a good mood, as opposed to the UK where it’s cloudy and grey all the time. So we’d never consider going back. We’ve found our home here, we’ve become Australian citizens and we’re here to stay.

Do you have any advice for British people moving to Australia?

I would say the most important thing, if you’re going to come out here and you have no contacts, is to come out here with full commitment. I’ve heard of people who come out here and haven’t even sold their house. They just say – well, we’re going to try it, we’ll rent our house in England, and keep our jobs open in England and see how it goes. But if you come out here you have to totally immerse yourself in Australia, try and make as many friends as possible as quickly as you can. It’s the people that don’t commit 100 per cent that end up going back, because they still have a piece of them left back in England.

We had a golden rule that for the first year we would not refuse a single invite. If someone invited us for dinner or a gathering or community event, we’d go even if we didn’t feel like it. Getting involved in the community and meeting people is so important.

You have to push past the initial period – for us the first four months were very difficult but we just had to power through. The turning point for us actually was our daughter’s fourth birthday. We had a party for her and about 20 kids came, who she’d met through school, and all their parents and we had an absolutely fantastic party. It wasn’t until that happened that we thought: we’ve arrived. We’re in Australia and we’re beginning to enjoy it. So the first three or four months will be difficult. But if you can get settled, it’s all worth it.